Wednesday, August 18, 2010

So, I don't actually speak any Italian (yet),*

but by the end of this week, I'll be living in Italy, where I will be teaching 3rd grade at an International School. I'm leaving on Thursday at 3 pm, and will get to Trieste on Friday at 6:30 pm. At this point, I have shipped a few things, my suitcases are somewhat packed, and I have a new toothbrush from Grandma. Hey, I've still got almost 40 hours, right?

Some things I have learned so far:

- Getting a visa to get into any country is complicated, not just the UK. Getting my sticker for Italy involved a 24 hour, 600 mile trip to Philadelphia to turn in paperwork so they could mail it back to me.

- There are many things you can't mail to Italy. Some of them make sense to me, like live animals, weapons, and chloroform, but some don't, like shoes, fake flowers, bells, playing cards, or "toys not made wholly of wood." You can't mail salt or saccharine, but regular sugar (sucrose) is okay. It is also illegal to mail haberdashery, which is just fun to say. (For a complete list, see here. It amused me for a good 20 minutes.)

Well, considering that it's nearly midnight, my plan to adjust my sleep schedule ahead of time seems to have failed miserably. Oops. Anyway, I'll post again when I get there!

~Kaitlin

*According to google translator, the title of this blog is "I am a teacher." I got too confused when trying to translate the actual web address, hence the English version.

2 comments:

Ugh, tell me about the visa problems!!! At least I got to go to an embassy in D.C., but they still required a stack of paperwork an inch thick, and they told me it was going to take 12-15 business days (meaning... after my flight). Then it only took 3. But at least, as of today, it is finally in my hands!